INTERNATIONAL LABOUR OFFICE
Governing Body
GB.325/LILS/INF/1
325th Session, Geneva, 29 October–12 November 2015
LILS
Legal Issues and International Labour Standards Section
FOR INFORMATION
Update on the status of ratification of the
1986 and 1997 Instruments for the
Amendment of the Constitution of the
International Labour Organisation
Summary: This document provides up-to-date information on the status of ratification of the 1986 and 1997 Instruments
for the Amendment of the ILO Constitution. The 1997 Constitutional amendment, which provides for the abrogation
of obsolete Conventions, has now been ratified by two-thirds of ILO member States, including five States of chief
industrial importance, and has entered into force on 8 October 2015.
Author unit: Office of the Legal Adviser (JUR).
Related documents: GB.283/LILS/WP/PRS/1/2; GB.292/PV;
GB.320/LILS/INF/1 and 2; GB/323/LILS/2; GB.325/LILS/3.
GB.297/LILS/2;
GB.309/PV;
GB.312/LILS/1;
This document will be made available in printed form during the GB session only, in order to minimize the environmental impact of the ILO’s
activities and processes, contribute to climate neutrality and improve efficiency. All GB documents are available on the Internet at www.ilo.org.
GB.325/LILS/INF/1
1. This document presents up-to-date information on the status of ratification of the
1997 Instrument for the Amendment of the Constitution of the International Labour
Organisation and discusses the implications of the entry into force of the 1997 amendment.
2. No ratification or acceptance of the 1986 Instrument for the Amendment of the
Constitution has been registered since the last report to the Governing Body in
March 2015. 1
Entry into force of the 1997 Instrument
of Amendment
3. According to article 36 of the ILO Constitution, to enter into force, an amendment to the
Constitution must be ratified or accepted by two-thirds of ILO member States, including at
least five of the ten member States of chief industrial importance. As there are currently
186 member States, an amendment needs to be ratified by 124 Members.
4. At its 323rd Session (March 2015), the Governing Body noted that 123 ratifications had
been registered, including seven from Members of chief industrial importance, and
therefore, one more ratification was required for the 1997 constitutional amendment to
enter into force. 2 The Governing Body had accordingly urged ILO Members which had
not yet done so to ratify the 1997 Instrument for the Amendment of the Constitution.
5. On 8 October 2015, the Director-General registered the instrument of acceptance of the
1997 constitutional amendment by the Cook Islands. The conditions for its entry into force
having been met, the 1997 Instrument for the Amendment of the Constitution of the ILO
has taken effect as of that date.
Significance and effects of abrogation
6. It is recalled that the 1997 amendment enables the Organization to abrogate obsolete
Conventions, and in so doing, reinforce the relevance, impact and coherence of
international labour standards. The amendment consists in adding a new paragraph 9 to
article 19 of the Constitution to read: “Acting on a proposal of the Governing Body, the
Conference may, by a majority of two-thirds of the votes cast by the delegates present,
abrogate any Convention adopted in accordance with the provisions of this article if it
appears that the Convention has lost its purpose or that it no longer makes a useful
contribution to attaining the objectives of the Organisation.”
7. It is considered that maintaining obsolete Conventions in force would be damaging to the
clarity and legibility of the ILO’s body of standards as a global reference. It is essential for
the credibility of the Organization to ensure that its standards are up to date, thus enabling
the Organization to concentrate its standard-setting action on the Conventions which
currently contribute to the achievement of its objectives. Abrogation is the termination of
the legal effects of Conventions in respect of the Organization and ratifying member
States. The possibility to abrogate outdated Conventions is thus an important element of
any process aimed at ensuring that the Organization has a body of clear and relevant labour
standards. The entry into force of the 1997 constitutional amendment is very timely as it
coincides with the recently launched Standards Review Mechanism (SRM) process, and
1
GB.323/LILS/2.
2
See GB.323/LILS/2, para. 4.
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the establishment of the SRM Tripartite Working Group, which will be responsible for
reviewing the existing body of standards and making recommendations to the Governing
Body on their status. 3
8. Contrary to the earlier practice of “shelving” outdated Conventions, the effect of the
abrogation within the meaning of the new paragraph 9 of article 19 of the ILO Constitution
will be to eliminate definitively all legal effects arising out of the Convention between the
Organization and its Members. An abrogated Convention will be removed from the ILO’s
body of standards. As a result, Members having ratified the Convention will no longer be
obliged to submit reports under article 22 of the Constitution, and may no longer be subject
to representations (article 24) and complaints (article 26) for non-observance of such a
Convention. For their part, the ILO supervisory bodies will not be required to examine the
implementation of the abrogated Convention while the Office will cease all relevant
activities, including the publication of the text of the Convention and the official
information regarding its ratification status.
9. While an abrogated Convention thus ceases to be an ILO Convention, nothing prevents
member States which have ratified it (and which might oppose its abrogation) from
considering that they remain bound, inter se, by its provisions. But they may no longer call
on the ILO, on the one hand, to supervise application and maintain procedural obligations
in respect of Conventions which no longer serve its objectives or, on the other hand, to
assume the resulting costs.
The abrogation procedure
10. Following the entry into force of the 1997 Instrument of Amendment, the Governing Body
may place an item on the agenda of the Conference concerning the abrogation of a
Convention in force, subject to the procedural conditions set out in article 5.4 of the
Standing Orders of the Governing Body. 4 To ensure that no Convention is abrogated
without broad tripartite support, the decision to place an item on the agenda of the
Conference concerning the abrogation of a Convention must, as far as possible, be reached
by consensus or, where it is not possible to reach such a consensus in two successive
sessions of the Governing Body, by a four-fifths majority of members of the Governing
Body with a right to vote during the second of these sessions.
11. Pursuant to article 45bis of its Standing Orders of the International Labour Conference,
when such an item is placed on the agenda of the Conference, the Office must
communicate to all governments at least 18 months before the session of the Conference, a
brief report, as well as a questionnaire, requesting governments to indicate their position
regarding the envisaged abrogation, after consultation with the most representative
employers’ and workers’ organizations. Based on the replies, a report must then be drawn
up containing the final proposal submitted to the Conference.
12. After discussing the proposed abrogation, the Conference decides, by consensus, or, where
this is not possible, by a preliminary vote requiring a two-thirds majority, to submit the
proposal to a final vote. As for the adoption of a Convention, a proposed abrogation
requires a two-thirds majority of votes from delegates present to pass.
3
See GB.312/PV, para. 577; GB.323/PV, para. 84; GB.325/LILS/3.
4
It is recalled that abrogation only concerns Conventions in force; in contrast, Conventions which
are not in force, as well as Recommendations, may be withdrawn by the Conference in accordance
with the procedure set out in article 45bis of its Standing Orders. To date, the International Labour
Conference has withdrawn five Conventions and 36 Recommendations.
2
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13. As regards the number of international labour Conventions which could be concerned by
the abrogation process, based on the recommendations of the Working Party on Policy
regarding the Revision of Standards (1995–2002), 5 31 Conventions have already been
classified by the Governing Body as “outdated”, 25 Conventions have been “shelved” and
seven have been retained as candidates for possible abrogation. 6
5
GB.283/LILS/WP/PRS/1/2.
6
These conventions are the Hours of Work and Rest Periods (Road Transport) Convention, 1939
(No. 67); Night Work (Women) Convention, 1919 (No. 4); Night Work (Women) Convention
(Revised), 1934 (No. 41); Protection against Accidents (Dockers) Convention, 1929 (No. 28);
Minimum Age (Trimmers and Stokers) Convention, 1921 (No. 15); Minimum Age (Non-Industrial
Employment) Convention (Revised), 1937 (No. 60); and Paid Vacations (Seafarers) Convention
(Revised), 1949 (No. 91).
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